Pixar’s 22 Rules for Phenomenal Storytelling

Posted on March 2, 2013 by Christi

It can be very hard to determine what makes a story “good.” What makes one story good and one story bad and one story just mediocre? Pixar thinks they may have it figured out.

What is it that makes Up, Finding Nemo, and WALL-E (among others) pretty amazing? Pixar has a few rules for phenomenal storytelling. I stumbled across this infographic over at pbjpublishing.com, and I just had to share.

My favorite might be #14. Which rule is your favorite? Do you have any rules that you might add?

Storytelling infographic - pixar - novel conclusions - Christi Gerstle - good writing - writing tips

Pixar’s 22 Rules for Phenomenal Storytelling via pbjpublishing.com

More Storytelling and Infographic Posts:

Pixar Touch Blog: Pixar Story Rules (a list of the rules in text format)
Nathan Bransford: Writing vs. Storytelling
The 10 Most Read Books in the World
A YA Book for Every State

15 Comments

Posted in Craft, Culture and tagged character, fairytales, Finding Nemo, infographics, Pixar, storytelling, Up, WALL-E, world building, writing, writing rules. Bookmark the permalink.

About Christi

Writing in SoCal.

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15 responses

Amy L. Montz | March 2, 2013 at 5:30 pm

Reblogged this on The Postmodern Bluestocking.
- Christi | March 2, 2013 at 6:07 pm
  
  Thanks for reblogging, Amy!
jennjhorn | March 3, 2013 at 10:56 am

Reblogged this on Thoughts from my orange chair.
- Christi | March 9, 2013 at 5:01 pm
  
  Thanks for reblogging, Jenn!
Rebecca Klempner | March 3, 2013 at 4:26 pm

I love #7, and I live by #14, but am intrigued by #9. And #22 is very, very important to keep in mind while editing, especially for a picture book.

Thanks for sharing!
- Christi | March 9, 2013 at 5:02 pm
  
  You’re right about #22 — it’s so important to keep the essence of your story at the forefront of your mind while editing. 🙂 Thanks for stopping by!
Vikki Thompson | March 4, 2013 at 11:41 pm

Excellent Christi, thank you 🙂

Xx
- Christi | March 9, 2013 at 5:02 pm
  
  Thanks for stopping by, Vikki! 🙂
pishnguyen | March 5, 2013 at 7:48 pm

Fantastic rules! I’ve been way stuck for ages (way longer than I would like to admit) on editing a first draft book. Perhaps keeping these rules in mind will help me get the ball rolling. 🙂
- Christi | March 9, 2013 at 5:02 pm
  
  I like to have a little push from things like this, too — it helps keep you on the right track. 🙂
alakotila | March 8, 2013 at 11:53 pm

I really like #2. It’s really important for me to consider what audiences want to see. I do comics, but still there are things that are quite fun to draw but perhaps are a waste of comic space to the audience (and vice versa! Some things readers really like to see I hate to draw). I also have to separate “fan service” content from audience desires — I recently realized that they are not the same.

Thanks for sharing these rules!
- Christi | March 9, 2013 at 5:04 pm
  
  It’s hard for us to realize sometimes that our target audience might not be interested in some tidbits that we really want to add. Thanks for visiting!
K | March 9, 2013 at 5:04 pm

I loved many of them, but I think I learned the most from #13 right now. LOVE this post! 🙂
hopecook | March 14, 2013 at 9:35 am

6, 9, 12 and 15…I need to take 9 to a couple scenes in my book right now. Thank you so much for posting this….brilliant!!
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